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During last weekend's PAX, MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh sat in on the Bioware / Star Wars: The Old Republic panel with several members of the dev team. During the panel, Carolyn shot a terrific video of eight players taking on the Eternity Vault along with developer narration. Read on!

We were also treated to a demo of the Eternity Vault, a high level Operation taking place on the planet of Belsavis. Earlier in the session, they had called for a show of hands for those in the audience that had had hands-on with the game, and then called for another show of hands for those had been playing for a while. “Never mind the NDA stuff.” Showing that open beta would not be far, if they were cavalier about the audience knowing who were in closed beta. They then called for audience members who had played specific roles to fill the Sith team that would attempt the mission. With the Devs vacating their stations and coaching from behind, the eight attempted the mission.

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I should have known they were trolling us by letting people think that GW2 had them beat. Still, there do seem to some bad ideas here, (why would you want to dress up as Obi-Wan?) and they all are born of that "living out your fantasies" line. Sorry, but this is an MMO, not interactive.. well, you know where I'm going.

Seriously, though, the game looks great, feels great, and steps up from the run-of-the-WoW gaming that some think is strangulating the genre. I say well done, BioWare.

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"The team also confirmed that they were limiting numbers that could get into the game on the first two days of launch. These days will be reserved for players who pre-order the game"

So if u didnt pre-order forget about the game for the first few days hu?

I always do. The last game I got into on launch day was LOTRO. Spent the biggest part of my time trying to find enough mobs to complete the "kill so many of whatever" quests. Launch day just isn't worth it. Its like trying to play a good game of football in a stadium the size of a closet. I'm more than happy to wait a week or so, so that by the time I get to play the lookie loos have pissed off to higher level areas or already quit the game they should not have bought in the first place.

"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "

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"The team also confirmed that they were limiting numbers that could get into the game on the first two days of launch. These days will be reserved for players who pre-order the game"

So if u didnt pre-order forget about the game for the first few days hu?

I always do. The last game I got into on launch day was LOTRO. Spent the biggest part of my time trying to find enough mobs to complete the "kill so many of whatever" quests. Launch day just isn't worth it. Its like trying to play a good game of football in a stadium the size of a closet. I'm more than happy to wait a week or so, so that by the time I get to play the lookie loos have pissed off to higher level areas or already quit the game they should not have bought in the first place.

I love launch days, if it is well done it doesnt matter how many ppl you have there. I always rush ahead anyway, and play thro the night 48h flat for the first 2 days, so where I am there are few to fight over for mobs with

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"most player find the slider bar system of avatar customization very difficult and simply press the random button until they arrive at a character they like."

??? How is moving a slider difficult? I have never clicked the random button in any game I have played. Do the Devs think we are idiots? I like my character to look a certain way from the choices they give us. How long will I have to hit the random button before I get the correct hair color with the hair style that I like? And then have it also match my other preferred choices?

I guess that is why they are giving the pre-order people a 2 day head start to create their avatar. Yes that is being sarcastic, but its comments like these from a Dev team that irk me.

In most games I leave the face features alone and pick a face I want. I don't mess with the nose size etc. So just leave out the nose slider but keep the others in, using their example.

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"most player find the slider bar system of avatar customization very difficult and simply press the random button until they arrive at a character they like."

??? How is moving a slider difficult? I have never clicked the random button in any game I have played. Do the Devs think we are idiots? I like my character to look a certain way from the choices they give us. How long will I have to hit the random button before I get the correct hair color with the hair style that I like? And then have it also match my other preferred choices?

I guess that is why they are giving the pre-order people a 2 day head start to create their avatar. Yes that is being sarcastic, but its comments like these from a Dev team that irk me.

In most games I leave the face features alone and pick a face I want. I don't mess with the nose size etc. So just leave out the nose slider but keep the others in, using their example.

I hate to have to say it but in my case they are right when it comes to sliders I tend to hit random until I see the features I like, in some games they then add a feature lock so if a certain feature I like pops up I will then lock that and continue to hit random until most features are to my liking.

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"most player find the slider bar system of avatar customization very difficult and simply press the random button until they arrive at a character they like."

??? How is moving a slider difficult? I have never clicked the random button in any game I have played. Do the Devs think we are idiots? I like my character to look a certain way from the choices they give us. How long will I have to hit the random button before I get the correct hair color with the hair style that I like? And then have it also match my other preferred choices?

I guess that is why they are giving the pre-order people a 2 day head start to create their avatar. Yes that is being sarcastic, but its comments like these from a Dev team that irk me.

In most games I leave the face features alone and pick a face I want. I don't mess with the nose size etc. So just leave out the nose slider but keep the others in, using their example.

They are not that wrong considering i do it all the time when i create my very first character.

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"most player find the slider bar system of avatar customization very difficult and simply press the random button until they arrive at a character they like."

??? How is moving a slider difficult? I have never clicked the random button in any game I have played. Do the Devs think we are idiots? I like my character to look a certain way from the choices they give us. How long will I have to hit the random button before I get the correct hair color with the hair style that I like? And then have it also match my other preferred choices?

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Ha ha! Loved the audience. A lot more into the show than the one at GC.

About the slide bars at character customization, I too only move through the pre-determined options. And I just pick the combo I like. But to actually play around with (for example) eyes height, wide, eyebrows positioning, forehead deepth and everything else.... I just dont know about art, so I rather not desfigure my beloved toon.

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The slider comment is based on date they have collected while doing beta's for this and other games. This isnt an off the cuff remak about sliders. They have the hard data to back it up.

I love how people assume devs just go oh we dont like that get rid of it when in fact testing gives them tons of data on tons of things and they use this date and feedback as well as if a feature works or doesnt to determine what they do or dont do.

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"most players find the slider bar system of avatar customization very difficult and simply press the random button until they arrive at a character they like."

Maybe i'm wrong, but I'm pretty skeptical about this assumption. Most MMO players i know spend a good deal of time customizing a character that they intend to use for any length of time. I suspect their data is skewed heavily by players that are merely trying a game/class temporarily and therefore have no interest in the customization aspects of a temporary character. Sounds like a copout to me.

Although I do agree massive slider customization eats up a lot of CPU cycles calling up database queries for textures.

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Its pretty much a "give us your money in front headstart thing" they are just asking for more and more preorders.

"no sliders because they are difficult" wow companies must believe we are all stupid monkeys pressing buttons without thinking about it. I call it PR crap, they don't want to spend time on a real character editor and therefore use the too difficult term for sliders...well Bioware if thats the way for you, this game will end up like a walk in the park.

Anyway we will soon see how their marketing crap will fare once the NDA is gone.

Huttball really Bioware, I mean, really? Imagine Sith and Jedis who hate is each other agreeing to Hutball?! Someone labeled them story nazis soo how does Hutball stack up with the story?

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Its pretty much a "give us your money in front headstart thing" they are just asking for more and more preorders.

"no sliders because they are difficult" wow companies must believe we are all stupid monkeys pressing buttons without thinking about it. I call it PR crap, they don't want to spend time on a real character editor and therefore use the too difficult term for sliders...well Bioware if thats the way for you, this game will end up like a walk in the park.

Anyway we will soon see how their marketing crap will fare once the NDA is gone.

Huttball really Bioware, I mean, really? Imagine Sith and Jedis who hate is each other agreeing to Hutball?! Someone labeled them story nazis soo how does Hutball stack up with the story?

I wonder if Bioware is worried about their initial pre-order volume. They have sold out all their Collectors, why would they worry. They are trying to let players in by phase to stabilise the initial starter zones. This looks like traffick regulation in face of a huge successful sales. This does not look like going bankrupt running all out for more money.

No sliders, so big deal? What else would you need to complain? Excess animation that heats up your graphics card?

Huttball, an optional feature, and you need to talk and ramble and moan when you really do not need to join. There are thousands of people doing things you do not like, do you need to talk forever?

This is a game, nothing bigger. What do you want from a game? What do you want, if you get worked up by an optional feature in a game that is not yet released? That is how you enjoy games? Good grief.

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Its pretty much a "give us your money in front headstart thing" they are just asking for more and more preorders.

"no sliders because they are difficult" wow companies must believe we are all stupid monkeys pressing buttons without thinking about it. I call it PR crap, they don't want to spend time on a real character editor and therefore use the too difficult term for sliders...well Bioware if thats the way for you, this game will end up like a walk in the park.

Anyway we will soon see how their marketing crap will fare once the NDA is gone.

Huttball really Bioware, I mean, really? Imagine Sith and Jedis who hate is each other agreeing to Hutball?! Someone labeled them story nazis soo how does Hutball stack up with the story?

Well most games put the random appearance button in the game for people who want to use that option. They also put the sliders in along with it so that people can dive in and customize their character in a deep way.

Saying they're not putting sliders in the game means one thing and only one thing. They didnt want to spend time on it. Period. Meaning more limited character customization. What I read basically translates too, " We didnt care about having a deep character customization. Too much work. " Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc had detailed character customization.

Im really kind of surprised. They've spent so much time, effort, and money on this game. Is this really that difficult a feature to include? Im starting to think they've wasted their budget on voice overs and story or something. Im really not sure what the deal is here. Darn weird if you ask me.

But again my point is, yes, games with deep character custimization almost always have the random look button anyways. Im just a little baffled here.

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Originally posted by Corehaven

Originally posted by DerWotan

....

Well most games put the random appearance button in the game for people who want to use that option. They also put the sliders in along with it so that people can dive in and customize their character in a deep way.

Saying they're not putting sliders in the game means one thing and only one thing. They didnt want to spend time on it. Period. Meaning more limited character customization. What I read basically translates too, " We didnt care about having a deep character customization. Too much work. " Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc had detailed character customization.

Im really kind of surprised. They've spent so much time, effort, and money on this game. Is this really that difficult a feature to include? Im starting to think they've wasted their budget on voice overs and story or something. Im really not sure what the deal is here. Darn weird if you ask me.

But again my point is, yes, games with deep character custimization almost always have the random look button anyways. Im just a little baffled here.

I think thats the point, they are running out of time and or money, therefore having to use stupid stuff like "sliders are too difficult" *lol*